


Remembering the Past

by queerspaceclub



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:35:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23870962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queerspaceclub/pseuds/queerspaceclub
Summary: Asami, with the rest of Team Avatar's help, says a final goodbye to her father.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Remembering the Past

**Author's Note:**

> A prequel/prologue of sorts to my [Looking to the Future](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1712128) series.
> 
> By the way, not trying to say that Hiroshi wasn't a total dick, even if he did sacrifice himself in the end, but Asami deserves closure.

“Are you sure you want to do this now?” asked Korra. Asami nodded, and Korra was glad to see that her eyes didn't seem as empty as they had been recently. It broke her heart to see her friend in so much pain, and it didn't help that the feelings about Asami that she'd been trying to push away over the last few years were coming to the surface again. There had been several moments since Kuvira's defeat when Korra had been desperate to confess to Asami that she didn't just want to be friends, but it wasn't the right time.

“Now. Before the wedding. I don't want to be thinking about it while we're supposed to be having fun.”

“Hey, you're allowed to be upset,” said Mako, resting a hand on Asami's shoulder. “Hiroshi - your dad - he did the right thing, in the end. And we should honour him for it.”

“Yeah! He sacrificed his life to stop that giant Mecha-Thing!” said Bolin. “I bet, if Korra asked Raiko, he'd have given him some Presidential Medal or something.” But Asami shook her head.

“No, I don't want Raiko or any of the others there. Just us. My dad - he didn't do it for Raiko, or the city. He did it for me, he wanted to make up for everything he'd done to hurt me.” Her voice cracked slightly at the end of her sentence, but she took a deep breath, stood up straighter, and walked into her father's office. Silently, the others followed.

It was plain that no one had been in here in years; the air was stale, and a thin layer of dust had settled on the desk. Asami hadn't wanted any reminders of her father, or his betrayal, but now this was all she had left of him.

“Hey, is this you?” Korra asked, pointing to a picture frame on the desk. A young girl, of about three or four, was sitting on the same desk while Hiroshi showed her a model Satomobile. She looked so excited, so carefree - it was an expression she longed to see on Asami's face now.

“I remember that,” Asami said, picking it up. She smiled sadly, the picture reflected in her glassy eyes. “I still have that model in my office.” Sliding the frame into her pocket, she moved around the desk to look in the drawers.

“This is so cool!” Bolin was gazing, open-mouthed, at the blue-prints strung up in one corner. “I mean, your dad invented _everything_!”

“Not everything,” said Mako, rolling his eyes. “What about all the stuff Asami's built?” But the girls weren't listening; Asami had just pulled out an old pair of glasses from the desk. There was a crack in one of the lenses, but they were undoubtedly Hiroshi's. She stood there, her face frozen in an expression of shock and grief, until Korra picked up a lacquered box from the desk. It was small and rather plain, but it would do.

“Let's put them in here,” she said, opening it. Inside was a battered, gold pocketwatch with _H.S._ engraved on the back. Asami picked it up and turned it over in her hands. It was a beautiful piece, but the mechanism had long since stopped working, the hands frozen in time.

“We'll take the watch too,” said Asami, carefully putting both the watch and the glasses inside and taking the box.

Given the varied cultural practices of the citizens of Republic City, the memorial site just north of Avatar Korra Park was an attempt to try and bring the city together to honour their dead. Many Earth Kingdom citizens were buried here, as were some Water Tribe people; the people of the Fire Nation and the Air Nomads cremated their dead and placed them at memorials around the grounds.

But there had been no body to recover after Hiroshi's death. Very little had been salvageable from the wreckage, and so the small black box, with his glasses and his watch inside, would serve as a memorial instead.

The four of them trudged through the park, solemn figures making their way towards the water where a man was setting in a new memorial. He nodded at them as they approached, and picked up his tools to move to the next spot, leaving them alone.

“Do you want us to wait?” said Korra. Asami hadn't really specified what she wanted to happen, but they were all prepared to give her what she needed. She glanced over at her father's grave, and took a deep breath to steady herself.

“Just for a moment.” She lowered her head and walked over, setting down the box.

Aside from her grandmother, when she was very young, Korra had never experienced a family member dying, but it felt as though an iron fist were wrapping around her heart as she watched Asami. There was a small part of her that was glad she'd never lived through it, but she also wished she could do something to make it better. For a moment she considered talking to Mako and Bolin about their parents, but there was time for that later.

It seemed far too nice a day for so much grief as they stood there in the sun. Only the cries of the sparrowswans broke the silence as they watched Asami murmur something indistinguishable and then wipe her eyes. Bolin, too, was sniffling, but for once he didn't say anything. Then Asami looked up at them, and nodded.

The other graves nearby had an urn or a decorative box placed beside them; some even had flowers, or notes, or incense burning in a holder. Hiroshi's stood out, unmarked by the effects of time, but here amongst several others, there was nothing to say that he had once been one of the most successful businessmen in the world, or a war criminal. He was simply another human being, laid to rest.

As they approached, Korra held out her arms, and Asami gladly took the offer. Korra could feel tears welling up as they hugged, but she did her best to stay strong. It seemed that was the only thing she knew how to do right now.

“Thank you for being here,” she said, turning to hug Mako and Bolin too.

“Of course,” said Mako. The four of them turned to look at Hiroshi's grave and stood in silence for a moment before Korra spoke.

“Asami. Would you mind if I said something?” She nodded. “I know your father did some pretty terrible things. But his sacrifice saved so many lives - we might never have defeated Kuvira without him. As the Avatar, I want to thank him for that. But I also want to thank him-” Here, she paused, swallowed, and reached to take Asami's hand.

“I want to thank him for my friend. He taught you so much, and now you're the CEO of a major company. And if he hadn't gotten so tangled up with the Equalists, and sponsored the Fire Ferrets, we might not have had any reason to spend time together. And I am so proud of you for being able to forgive him for what he did. If I've learned anything it's that we all deserve the chance to make up for our mistakes. His inventions helped so many people, and I know that you're going to do exactly the same.”

Silence followed her little speech, and Korra panicked for a second. Had she said too much? Was it weird that they were holding hands?

But then she realised that Asami was crying. Korra squeezed her hand gently before Bolin wrapped his arms around them both, bawling his eyes out.

“That was so beautiful!” he cried.

“Bolin, take it easy, you're gonna crush them,” said Mako, but instead of trying to peel his brother away, he joined in too, and the four of them stood holding each other for a moment. For Korra, though, there was only Asami.

“Thank you,” she said quietly.

“We'll remember what he did for us. For you.”


End file.
